


Honest Questions

by ThePrincessOfPirates



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M, References to Pon Farr, also T'Pol's hot and bothered, and that creepy andorian is REALLY CREEPY, slight violence but the worst it gets is smeared blood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-02 23:55:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2830664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePrincessOfPirates/pseuds/ThePrincessOfPirates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An honest question deserves an honest answer, however unspoken.</p>
<p>Something about that scene with that Andorian who was hitting on T'Pol made me think that she would rather he not kill the captain but maybe have the captain kill him instead.  Just the polite little musings of someone who nearly ships every possible combination on this show.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Touch of Something New or Old

“Do you want me to kill him for you?” the Andorian whispered.

It was an honest question. Like asking a Denobulan if they fancied the idea of a monogamous relationship, or a human a polyamorous one. T'Pol would like to believe that the question was less of an emotional ass grab and more of a decent research question.

A scientific question deserved a scientific answer. A scientific answer to a question T'Pol hadn't mused on. How would she feel if the Andorian next to her murdered her captain for her hand?

Her stomach lurched and she had to suppress the urge to vomit at the thought. The sick feeling sat in her gut like a block of ice, chilling her to the bone. She needed something to wash the swilling feeling out of her. An idea that was similar but more pleasant. An idea that would give her mind solace.

Suddenly a thought passed through her mind. One that seemed to warm that icy feeling in the pit of her stomach; the thought of the reverse.

Her mind delved totally into the scenario, going so deep that she could almost feel the hot Vulcan sun on her back. She could just imagine Archer wrestling in the sand with the blue skinned alien next to her, his jumpsuit abandoned at the sidelines and his black undershirt dirty and torn.

T'Pol took in a deep breath of the rapidly chilling air in the temple. Something was unsettlingly arousing about even thinking of the captain tousled and bruised, blue Andorian blood smudging his face. T'Pol nearly had to shift uncomfortably in her stance at the thought of Jonathan pinning the other man to the ground with the Lirpa, the Andorian struggling for breath. She had to fight the impending urge to worry her lip between her teeth of the thought of the captain getting up, the alien beneath him not yet dead but beaten senseless, giving the blue skinned man a kick to the ribs and deciding it wasn't worth breaking protocol to kill him.

T'Pol once again tried to fill her lungs with air, her heart beat was rising and so was her skin temperature. It wasn't until the strong scent of iron hit her that she remembered her current nasal situation and the actual wounded man behind her. The smell of human blood was an overwhelming scent, however, in the current situation, it did more to forward the small fantasy she was running over than disgust her.

She couldn't shake the images in her mind, the vivid ideas feeling as if they were actually happening. Something was so bright and realistic about the scenario in her mind. The hand grasping tightly to the small of her back could have really been there and she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. The lips on her lips, no matter how imaginary, almost sent flares down her spine. T'Pol swallowed.

“How does the sound to you?” the Andorain asked, obviously thinking that her slight displays of arousal were brought on by his earlier proposal.

She didn't tell him it was the actually the reverse that was getting her so excited.

 


	2. A Swirling Cloud of Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> T'Pol finds herself more distracted by her time spent at the temple than she thought she would be.

“T'Pol,” the voice snapped her out of her daze.

“Yes captain,” T'Pol replied, looking up from her console.

“You seem distant,” the man began, “Are you still feeling uncomfortable from that... exchange with the Andorian earlier? You can take a break and head to your quarters if that will make you feel better. A distracted science officer is worse than no science officer at all.” The small chuckle following the last, light, joking sentence seemed to warm the aura of the room.

“Thank you, captain.” T'Pol responded, standing up from her seat. A break from the distractions of work seemed like a good idea, some time alone to work through the thoughts that were mulling through the back of her head.

T'Pol walked down to her cabin, the quiet hallways resonating her foot steps. She stepped inside her cabin, the silence of the room giving her mind space to breathe, and breathe it did. The thoughts that were swirling in her cranium went from a soft buzz, quiet reminders, whispers, to full on attack filling up her skull with ideas and calculations. What exactly was that internal display of hers back in the temple. Was it merely a remedy for the Andorian's suggestions or was it something else? Was it a thought that she'd been thinking up for a long time before that had only then busted through the mental damn or was it a fresh-baked idea?

T'Pol sat on the rug on her floor to think. She thought about lighting up some incense to meditate but decided that the external stimuli of scent would distract her from her main purpose. She shifted herself ever so slightly, pressing into a more easily sustainable position.

 _'Was that mental display more sexual than it needed to be?'_ T'Pol thought.

 _'No,'_ she answered herself, _'the thought could have comfortably ended at the Andorian losing with no displays of physical prowess and the same effect could be reached. My mind intentionally made that situation a sexual one.'_

 _'Was this the first case of sexual attraction to_ _wards_ _captain Archer, suppressed or otherwise?'_ T'Pol asked herself, thinking long and hard about if she had ever before felt something for the human.

She had... several times. Humans and their lack of modesty had left her to see many shirtless crewmen, the captain himself not excluded. T'Pol sighed, she was going to be thinking this through for a while.

“T'Pol,” a voice came, and for the second time today broke her out of a spiral of thought. Her eyes snapped open and she turned towards her cabin door. It was the captain. “Dinner's starting, I just wanted to let you know. Come down when you're hungry.”

“Thank you, captain.” T'Pol replied. The man nodded and stepped off in the direction of the captain's mess.

T'Pol freshened up a little, straitening her uniform and such, before making her way down to the mess hall.

The room was as busy as it should be during meal time, a moderate smattering of people spread throughout the room.

T'Pol gathered herself a plate and went to sit with doctor Phlox.

“Good evening,” the Denobulan greeted, a charismatic smile spreading across his face. “What's tonight's conversation piece?” The two of them, being the only non-humans on the ship, often mulled over some odd conversation piece throughout meals in the hopes that their opposing view points would lead to a sensible answer.

“What do you know of inter-species romance?” T'Pol asked, hoping it wouldn't arise to much suspicion.

“The captain was right, you're still stuck on that Andorian from the temple, aren't you.” Phlox bit into a carrot.

“I was really more concerned about the possibility of attraction between Romulans and humans.” T'Pol lied, “I'd always wondered if a superior species such as Romulans could even consider a lesser being like a human as a mate.”

“Well I imagine that it would be unlikely,” Phlox began, “but the species gap isn't that large. There are things that humans can do that Romulans would find befitting of a good mate. However in most cases a Romulan would find others of their own species more attractive but if they were, say, submerged into human culture, not given many options of their own species, they might find the prospect to be highly tempting.”

“You have a fair point,” T'Pol replied soon realizing that if she cut the discussion off there, Phlox might put 2 and 2 together. “What about humans and andorians?”

 While the two appeared to be rambling on and on about the unattractiveness of antenna, one of them, specifically the Vulcan, was actually lost deep in thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I wrote another chapter wow. Well this might become a series... I thought I'd only ever write one shots but here it is two chapters and running.


	3. A Conversation Of Truths

“Good evening commander,” T'Pol said, seating herself at a small port-side table currently inhabited by Commander Tucker.

 

“How ya been doin' sub-commander?” Trip asked, looking up from his steak. It wasn't often that he ate dinner outside of the captain's mess, chances were he missed average mess time because of work just as she had.

 

“Fairly well, and yourself?” T'Pol replied, eying down her meal. It was the third night in a row she'd had to opt for a salad because Chef had served a meal that didn't agree with her.

 

“I detect a lie in there, am I wrong?” the blonde man smirked. “I've been around you long enough to know when somethin's eatin' ya and so has the rest of the crew, Hoshi's startin' to get worried. What's got the emotionless Vulcan all tousled up?”

 

“Why would I tell you about my personal turmoil?” T'Pol answered, doing her best to contain her annoyance.

 

“Tellin' someone might make ya feel better.” Trip offered, “Not ta mention if it's what I think it is, I'm certainly not gonna tell.”

 

“And what exactly do you think my issue is?” T'Pol stabbed a chunk of iceberg lettuce.

 

“If I told ya without hearin' your side first and I turned out to be wrong, you would kill me,” the Floridan explained, “I'd much rather keep it an unspoken theory until it is proven otherwise.”

 

“If you promise, and I mean _promise,_ to never tell a soul what I'm about to say, I believe I can prove or disprove your theory.” T'Pol stated, her voice as grating and intense as Trip had ever heard it.

 

“Shoot,” Trip popped a bite of steak into his mouth.

 

“I believe, due to cultural saturation, some internal mechanisms in my mind have made a logical shift to make decisions based off currently available informa-”

 

“Cut to the chase, your science-y explanation isn't gonna soften the blow of whatever you're about to say.” Trip sighed, still chewing.

 

“I think I'm sexually attracted to the captain.” T'Pol bit, the words coming out quickly and quietly, a hushed snip of verbal information.

 

The engineer choked on his bite of steak and nearly called the entire mess hall to attention with his violent coughing fit.

 

“I understand the illogical and erratic nature of the makes it qui-”

 

“No, it's the complete opposite,” Trip was laughing now, “It's just,” he took a breathing break, “It's just that, well, you and everyone else in the crew!”

 

“What do you mean?” T'Pol's curiosity was peaked.

 

“Almost everyone else on this ship who's ever met the cap'n face to face feels the same way.” Trip looked her straight in the eye. “The only bridge worker who doesn't have a crush on the cap'n is Travis and even he thinks Archer's attractive. To be honest he's just too excited about space to care about romantic relationships. But that's a different conversation that he's gonna have ta give ya at a later date.”

 

“But Lieutenant Reed said-”

 

“Lieutenant Reed lied,” Trip interrupted. “And anyone else who says they haven't is a liar. Like really, have you seen his jawline? That one feature alone could make even the straightest of men rethink just how dedicated they are to their sexualities.”

 

“Is that what happened to you?” T'Pol asked.

 

“No, actually, I kept a fairly diverse company even before I met Jonathan.” Trip responded. “What about you? What kinda history do you have back on Vulcan?”

 

“The dating situation on Vulcan is a bit tense,” T'Pol stabbed a small tomato, bringing it to her lips and consuming it quickly.

 

“So I don't think you got around much...” Trip chuckled slightly.

 

“I had my fair share of romantic partners,” T'Pol took another bite of her salad. “I dated just as much as any other Vulcan of my age.”

 

“Fair enough,” Trip smiled a little, “We're veering a bit off topic though. Hate to bird walk away from the actual problem and have you leavin' here as tense as when you came in.” He sat more upright in his chair, “My advice to you is to not treat this any differently than you'd treat attraction to anyone else. Meditate it away if that's what you wanna do, heck you could even try makin' a pass at the cap'n if you're willin' to break a few protocol this week. But whatever you do, don't get hung up on his rank and who he is to you because that will be your downfall. You'll think you're treading in unfamiliar waters and it'll make the whole situation real difficult to work with.”

 

“I don't have experience being attracted to superior officers.” T'Pol seemed worried.

 

“See, you're doin' it wrong!” Trip leaned forward in his chair. “Go and do exactly what you would do if you thought your lab partner back on Vulcan was cute! Go, now, go back to your cabin and cook up a plan. Take your dinner with you. Leave.” he pointed to the door.

 

T'Pol stood up, holding her plate and stepped back from the table, threatened.

 

“There you go, get your tuckus down to E Deck. Go.” he melted back in his chair as she stepped out of the room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that it's been nearly two months since I last updated this but I've been working on something big. Like 3,000+ words and counting big. I might post it under my other pseud because it does feel a little forced but that's a decision I'll make when it's finished. Anyway, it's huge and it's kinda my baby since I sacrificed a Valentines day piece to work on it and all. It's not this same ship but it is this same show so there's that. I'll see if I can update this more often now that I'm writing more.
> 
> Anyway Christmas was great and so was New Year's. Missed my coven's Yule celebration but shit happens. I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and such. It's 100% okay to hit me up or bother me on other social media that I think I'll like in my bio. Have a lovely day/evening/night.

**Author's Note:**

> Well this was really fun and I might write a follow up if anyone wants one.


End file.
